The first principal conductor was Graham George; he led the orchestra's debut concert of Joseph Haydn's The Creation on 12 April 1954 at The Grand Theatre with the Kingston Choral Society and baritone James Milligan.
[4] Alexander Brott was brought in as conductor in 1965, and during his tenure the orchestra was able to hire a number of professional string and wind players.
[5] Kingston's newly renovated Grand Theatre became the orchestra's main concert venue.
[2] Under his direction, the KS made a change towards playing new works by Canadian composers.
The orchestra has given the world premieres of Chan Ka Nin's Violin Concerto (1998); Marjan Mozetich's Piano Concerto (2000); Srul Irving Glick's last work, Isaiah (2002); John Burge's Clarinet Concerto (2004); István Anhalt's The Tents of Abraham (2005);[7] and Peter Paul Koprowski's Tapestries of Love: Symphony for Soprano and Orchestra (2007).